The Twisted Truth
by Jaluna Rolik
Summary: Semi-AU story. At the Rithmere games a pair of siblings returns to see old friends. But how will Lief respond when he finds out his parents lied to him, and that his childhood friend/love is half vampire? And how will Jasmine respond to who her dad is?


Twisted Truth

(Jasmine/OC, Lief/OC)

Disclaimer: I do not own Deltora Quest. At all. The only thing in this story I own is the two OC characters used (Flutter and Sayaku), and likely plot changes based off the fact that I watched the cartoon and did research before writing this, without actually having gotten to read the books. Forgive me. This takes place around the time of the Rithmere Games.

The Rithmere Games were nearly over. There was only one set of battles left, which were the semi-finals and the finals. By then, Lief and Barda had already been disqualified by losing their matches (under their false names of Twig and Barry). The only one left was Jasmine, or at that moment, Birdy- who had won her match by default.

Outside, however, were voices, very close to the room in which the three travelers that had been competing were at rest. There were two voices- both female, one more mature and rather robotic compared to the other. However, that same voice seemed to be crying. The other voice, almost motherly in response, was trying to calm the girl down. Lief looked outside, to see the one he'd lost to, Neridah, along with a slightly familiar figure of a frail girl, blue hair touching the ground as she covered her face.

"I didn't think he'd be here! I knew that his parents sent him on a journey but..." The girl's voice trailed off. "I haven't seen him since big brother told me about my origins. I can't go out there tomorrow..."

"What's the big deal? He's just some guy. And you haven't even told me who you're talking about."

"Lief...He's here...But..." She shook her head. "He probably doesn't even remember me."

"Who's that? Hm... Sounds like Twig somehow... Was he in the competition?"

"You're the one who beat him, Neridah! Of course he was in the competition, I told you that!"

"So his real name's Lief. I thought that name of his was strange...'Twig'." The red-head started laughing, but the girl near her wasn't laughing. "Flutter..." Suddenly, a sound was made, as a window opened quite in a flash. Looking up at it, Neridah saw the blonde boy in question staring out at them, eyes wide. "Doesn't seem like he's forgotten."

"That, or he keeps hearing his name." Flutter wouldn't look up at him. Only the orange-haired girl with her was looking at the window. A grunt of frustration was heard, however, causing her to look up in time to see the boy jumping from the heights of the window-sill. When he landed, he landed on one leg and one foot, squinting slightly from the impact. A bearded man was seen looking out the window, staring at the blue haired child.

"I see...She's been watching."

"Idiot. What do you think you're doing?" Flutter ran over, noticing a slight wound on his knee where he'd hit the ground, which was trickling a small trail of blood down his leg. Her eyes grew wide. Blood- that was the last thing she needed to think about.

"Don't you think this is a perfect time to stop hiding, Flutter?" Neridah gave a playful smirk to the younger girl, looking at Lief. "This is what you were afraid of right? Blood. But not of blood itself. When you read the scroll of-"

"Be quiet, Neridah! That's the last thing we need to worry about right now! Just get my first aid kit will you? Get the vial of red liquid."

"Always so finicky..." The orange haired girl sighed and did as told, taking it to her. "What's this for?"

"What is that stuff? It smells..."

"Relax. It's just medicine." The girl pulled up his pants leg to reveal the wound before pouring a bit of the liquid on her finger, using it to rub the cut. He seemed to wince. "C'mon, even I can tell it doesn't hurt that bad. You were fine when we were kids and I used this stuff for you. You got hurt a lot last I checked- almost as much as me. And that's saying something."

"True, he was a klutz. But maybe you just rubbed off on him." The man up in the window called down, grinning. The boy looked up at him, surprised to hear they both seemed to be on the same page, while he was not.

"He doesn't recognize me, Barda. Forget it." She shook her head and finished her wound care before lowering his pants leg. "Really, always so rash. At least be careful before you jump out of a window, will ya?"

"How do you know our names? You're not with the grey guards, are you?"

"I'm not with the grey guards, however... The rest I won't answer for now. I wanna see if something can jog that bad memory of yours." She grinned, apparently more at ease. However, inside, a scream was heard- the final of the boy's group, backing up when the door was knocked on, though then a name came out of her lips. Barda turned to watch as the girl was jumping over to a tall, brown-haired male.

"Well I'll be. So both of you siblings are here..." Barda looked down to Flutter. "Any idea how your brother knows Jasmine?"

"Eh? Ja-chan? Did you say Ja-chan's up there?" There was suddenly silence. Neridah stared at the group.

"So...Birdy is the girl Sayaku always talks about..."

"What's with the weird names, anyway?" Flutter laughed. She looked up to Barda. "It was your ideas, right? There's no way anyone else would come up with those names, Barda!"

"Why don't you three get up here? I have a feeling your brother's gonna have a fit if you stay down there much longer. Besides, something tells me you're competing anyway." Lief stared at her when he heard Barda's words. That frail girl was competing? But how?


End file.
